The International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) International Women in Maritime Day is held on May 18th every year to mark and celebrate women in the industry and to promote the recruitment, retention and sustained employment of women in the maritime sector.
With this year’s theme “Mobilizing networks for Gender Equality” we speak with François Lambert, General Manager of the French Maritime Academy the “Ecole Nationale Supérieure Maritime, ENSM”- an organization supported by Lubmarine - about its goal to attract more women into its Merchant Navy Officer training programmes.
With 4 locations across France– Le Havre, Marseille, Nantes and St Malo, responsible for the teaching of 1,200 students and overseeing approximately 4,000 interns, the ENSM has a challenge to double the numbers of students it will train by 2027 to meet growing global maritime demands.
As François explains, the ENSM has highlighted an opportunity to attract more women into the industry through its programs but recognizes the challenge it faces to attract them to the diverse career opportunities the international maritime sector provides.
“Across the professional training programs that we run – from Engine Watchkeeping Officer/ Chief Engineer, to Merchant Navy 1st Class Officer/Engineer through to International Bridge Watchkeeping Officer/Captain Training and Maritime Engineering Training we have between 8% and 30% female participation, which across the board averages out to around 16%.
“Merchant vessel activities are the main areas of the marine industry and whilst the numbers of women we are training is increasing, it is not quick enough for our liking and this is the challenge we face – not just as an organization but as a global maritime industry.
“The Merchant Navy offers incredible career opportunities and we need to reach out to more women to highlight this and capture their attention through the diverse nature of the roles they can undertake,” said François.
“It is not a job, it is a career, it is a way of life – and a richly rewarding and interesting one. But it is still seen as a largely male dominated one from the outside, so it is a real challenge that we face to overcome perceptions.
“We have increasing numbers of qualified female Merchant Marine Officers taking up instructor roles across our schools which is positive and helping support our goals. It is an extremely exciting time to be involved in maritime and our recruits today are able to be part of not just a global industry but be at the forefront of the decarbonization evolution. We need more women to be part of that evolution to enable the goals that have been set by the IMO to be reached.
“As an industry we have to collectively continue to make strides forward by attracting talented women into the industry and this is happening. We need to continue to drive these changes and we can play an important role in bringing the new era of officers into the industry, because it offers diverse, interesting and rewarding career opportunities,” added François.